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'I just have a warm place in my heart and my mind and my balls for the whole f-ing concept'

Last year, Thom Yorke's new group Atoms for Peace hit the road for a brief American tour before playing Coachella. According to the band's bassist Flea, the group started to work on their first album at that same time. "At the end of the tour we went into a studio for three days and just jammed – totally improvising," says Flea. "Thom and Nigel [Godrich] have taken that stuff and done shit with it. I've heard little bits and pieces. I have no idea when it's going to come out. Not real soon though."

Flea says that many people have the wrong perception of Yorke. "People always think about him and talk about as this really cerebral artist," he says. "Especially when we were playing together. People would go, 'Thom is so cerebral and Flea is just an animal.' But Thom is the type of musician who doesn't think at all. He goes totally on feeling and intuition. Whereas I'm like, 'You can try a G7 chord with a diminished fifth, that might be proper.' My point is that he's such a beautiful, natural and exciting musician. Also, his relationship with Nigel is so cool, Nigel being this organizational, producery-type guy. They're going to have something incredible. I have complete faith in them."

He refuses to describe the sound of the new material. "I kinda feel like it's not really my place to talk about that stuff," he says. "The mystery should be the mystery." He does think they will tour again at some point. "I imagine that will probably happen," he says. "I hope that happens. I just have a warm place in my heart and my mind and my balls for the whole fucking concept."